Once you forget that it’s an abomination, ‘Cats’ is decent

Posted on December 28, 2019 by reelentropy

AHHHHH! Images courtesy Universal Pictures.

1/10 “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretches whom with such infinite pains and care I have endeavored to form? Their limbs are in proportion, and their features were selected as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! 

“I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing cathood onto these bodies. For this, I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation, but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart-” writer/director/producer Tom Hooper. 

Continue reading →

Posted in Entropy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Simpering, cowardly ‘Rise of Skywalker’ grovels its way to saga’s end

Posted on December 20, 2019 by reelentropy

Images courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

2/10 In the aftermath of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so many disillusioned fans were demanding deep and specific revisions that the proposal to make a different version of the installment for each individual viewer became a running gag.

It looks like J.J. Abrams actually got to make his. 

Continue reading →

Posted in Entropy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

A savage, deeply cathartic ‘Marriage Story’

Posted on December 18, 2019 by reelentropy

Images courtesy Netflix.

9/10 Writer/director/producer Noah Baumbach set out to create the universal divorce movie, and damn it all he seems to have done it. 

Noah Bumbach’s Marriage Story follows the increasingly acrimonious divorce of Charlie and Nicole Barber (Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson). The pair were a star director/actress duo at Charlie’s New York City acting troupe, but Nicole has wanted for years to return home to Los Angeles, which she does as their divorce proceedings begin, taking their son Henry (Azhy Robertson) with her. The two have agreed to settle things between themselves and not get lawyers involved, but Nicole hires high-powered divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern) soon after she moves. The main narrative arc of the film is Charlie realizing he has to fight fire with fire here, first hiring laid-back retiree Bert Spitz (Alan Alda) and then his own high-octane divorce specialist in Jay Marotta (Ray Liotta) – “I needed my own asshole,” Charlie says. 

Continue reading →

Posted in Entropy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Scorsese lays out fears in ‘Irishman’

Posted on December 17, 2019 by reelentropy

Eyuuuckh. Images courtesy Netflix.

5/10 So, don’t tell anybody about this, but I think Martin Scorsese might be a little nervous about dying.

In I Heard You Paint Houses — marketing title The Irishman — an elderly Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (Robert De Niro), nearly dead in his Philadelphia hospice, tells all about his years as a hitman for the Bufalino crime family. After coming home from World War II in 1945, Sheeran takes a job as a truck driver, doing crimes for extra money on the side. Boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) himself takes Sheeran under his wing, eventually introducing him to union head Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Sheeran becomes a mass murderer under Bufalino and as Hoffa’s bodyguard.

Continue reading →

Posted in Entropy, White Noise | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Horrifying ‘Torture Report’ brings evil to life

Posted on December 17, 2019 by reelentropy

Man, I just love Adam Driver. He’s easily the best thing to come out of the Sequel Trilogy. Images courtesy Amazon Studios.

6/10 I wonder if this will finally get Ellen to dump George. 

The Torture Report chronicles Daniel J. Jones’ (Adam Driver) investigation into the U.S.’ torture of enemy combatants after the Sept. 11 attacks. A congressional aid for California Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening), Jones is assigned in 2009 to go through the CIA’s full documentation of the “enhanced interrogation” program that was employed at Abu Ghraib prison and the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The film cuts between Jones’ seven-year investigation and fight to get it published and the architecture of the torture program he was investigating, pioneered by psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Elmer Mitchell (T. Ryder Smith and Douglas Hodge). 

Fighting multiple political foes at different points, Jones eventually got a a 525-page summary of his 6,700-page report released. The report details a repulsive, woefully ineffective and pathologically stupid torture program. The film portrays interrogation techniques that are not only unproductive and morally wrong, but that replaced traditional interrogation methods that had been working just fine. U.S. operatives never gained a single piece of new, accurate information from the use of torture. 

Continue reading →

Posted in Entropy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment